An Update

So it has been a while.  I can really only blame it on the fact that I haven’t sustained my normal level of boredom.  The last couple weeks have been crazy with travel and much of my spare time is taken up with looking for a new place to live. 

About a year and a half ago, Ben and I decided to buy a pre-construction condo in Printers Row.  Good investment decision right?  Wrong.  About the second the ink dried on my signature the real estate market crashed as did much of the economy.  I was pretty much freaking out from then on out.  I also was flipping out about the fact that somehow I needed to come up with a massive down payment and still live in one of the more expensive cities in the country.  Oh yeah, and get married.  I was basically a stress case and it wasn’t fun.

Also, through the whole process of securing a mortgage we decided that we may have bitten off more than we can chew.  We could afford the place but we would have eaten ramen every night so we could still go out once in a while.  Not our idea of fun.  Note to future pre-construction homeowners…be sure you include taxes and property insurance in overall monthly payments…no one told us about that stuff.

Anyway, last Monday I got a call from our developer saying that due to some recent financial trouble, the building will no longer be sold as condos but as rental apartments.  Meaning, we are out of the contract AND we are getting all our money back, plus interest.  Hallelujah!  Best day ever.

Now, Ben and I are on a mad search for a new, much cheaper place.  Thankfully, like the rest of the US, the Chicago real estate market has tanked and we can afford much more in a condo than we could a year and a half ago.  Thank goodness we are just buying a place and not selling one.

Now, all we do is look on the MLS, search random websites for pricing information, talk about a certain place we found, how much it would cost to fix it up, what to update, what not to update, about looking at other places, about looking into looking at other places, comparing other places to the one we found, about whether or not we should we make an offer, and my favorite, discussing why don’t we talk more about the place we’ve already talked to death.  Apparently, I am not talking about this enough and Ben is calling me out on it.  Mr. Talkative, welcome to my world  

Good times.